The South Korean government announced a set of measures on Monday to reform the 52-hour workweek system. The government claims its measures will give workers more flexibility in choosing their work hours. Under the current system, which was introduced in 2018 by the Moon administration, employers must limit overtime work to 12 hours per week to ensure that workers do not work more than 52 hours each week. 

The new revision will allow companies to manage overtime on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and yearly basis so that employers can choose to increase workers’ time on the job during peak times while reducing it when there is less work. The new system will try to prevent employers from making workers work overtime on consecutive working days by guaranteeing a consecutive rest period of 11 hours between each working day. This will enable companies to increase the maximum weekly work hours to 69 while still keeping the average work hours within the 52-hour limit.